Rebecca of Revka’s Take, aren’t you absolutely horrified and reviled that Lawrence, Kansas, should take second place in the top twenty meanest cities in the United States?
America’s harsh streets may be tougher for the homeless than they’ve ever been, according to two homeless-advocacy groups that on Wednesday released their survey of the nation’s 20 “meanest” cities for the poor.
Some of the report’s findings:
Criminalization of the homeless increasingly occurs in ways like making it illegal to sit, sleep or place personal belongings in a public space. Some police departments make more aggressive sweeps of areas known to be populated by the homeless.
Twenty-seven percent of the cities surveyed prohibit sitting or lying in certain public places, a 14 percent increase over the number of cities surveyed in the groups’ last report, in 2002.
Forty-three percent of the cities surveyed bar begging in certain public places, a 12 percent increase over 2002.
The Top 20 were:
1. Sarasota, Fla.;
2. Lawrence, Kans.;
3. Little Rock, Ark.;
4. Atlanta, Ga.;
5. Las Vegas, Nev.;
6. Dallas, Texas;
7. Houston, Texas;
8. San Juan, P.R.;
9. Santa Monica, Calif.;
10. Flagstaff, Ariz.;
11. San Francisco, Calif.;
12. Chicago, Ill.;
13. San Antonio, Texas;
14. New York City, N.Y.;
15. Austin, Texas;
16. Anchorage, Alaska;
17. Phoenix, Ariz.;
18. Los Angeles, Calif.;
19. St. Louis, Mo.;
20. Pittsburgh, Pa.
Michael Stoops, acting director of the Washington, DC-based National Homeless Coalition slapped Lawrence in the face by saying: “My challenge to Lawrence is that if it wants to continue to be known as a progressive city — which it is — it needs to quit criminalizing homelessness and arresting someone for camping, for sleeping, for sitting in the doorway,” said Michael Stoops, acting director of the Washington, D.C.-based coalition.
Lawrence, Kansas has, boys and girls, according to a 2002 study, a whole 134 persons who are bums — er, I mean, eh, homeless in that town. For Christ’s sake, I can find 134 animals within 1,000 feet of my own little cabin who are homeless. I can find 134 persons within a quarter mile radius in Sacratomato, Fornicalia who have ingrown toenails, bad flatulence, hernias and hemorrhoids, all in one package.
Big deal!
San Francisco, naturally, is bleeding all over its 11th place ranking. And here’s the best part: Mayor Gavin Newsom, who abrogated Fornicalian law and began allowing gay marriages in the city last year (only to have them all essentially annulled), created a 32-officer police homelessness outreach team that “tries to help homeless people into services rather than jail them.” Only now, the local Homeless Poverty Pimps don’t like that idea because “They (police) may be wonderfully sensitive people, but they should have social workers only doing that job. The uniform alone is intimidating.”
The uniform alone is intimidating. Gestapo? Jackboots? Iron Crosses? Let me give you a little teeny, weeny clue about San Francisco. Not too terribly long ago SFPD was driving powder-puff-blue colored cars marked with “Police Services” because it was determined by a former socialist regime that black and white cars with the Nazi-linked word POLICE was too oppressive to be viewed by the common citizen.
Let me give you another clue: when gays rioted under Mayor Diane Feinstein on May 21, 1979, about 5,000 demonstrators ransacked and rioted in the Civic Center around City Hall in response to the verdict of the Dan White murder trial. Those “White Night” riots resulted in more than 150 people injured and over $1 million in property damage. Close to 40 police cars were overturned and burned. Then-Mayor Feinstein told the police directly to let the riots go.
One final clue about San Francisco: it is a beautiful city scarred by the overwhelming presence of urine puddles and fecal material distributed flawlessly by its cultivated and nurtured genetically-deficient pool of “homeless” tweakers, crankers, psychotics, mumbling idiots and out-and-out thugs. How do I know? I not only visit San Francisco from time to time, but I do occasional business there. And in merely the last five years, for example, it has become a burgeoning haven for the bum element.
San Francisco “mean” and “oppressive” for the homeless?
Sorry. Not nearly mean enough.
I think it is being kind if you force the homeless into shelters and off the street. And if they are in jail at least they have a warm meal and a warm place to sleep.
Rebecca’s computer crashed so she’s out of commission for a couple of days.
LMC: thanks for the tip of Rebecca — I had my own world-ending HD failure about 4 months, costing me $600+ for a clean room disk recovery for my 7 years’ worth of digital photos.
And yes, it IS kind if you get the so-called homeless into shelters and, in my opinion, more IMPORTANTLY, screen those necessary into mental wards where they will be introduced to or reacquainted with Paxil, Thorazine and a whole host of psychotropic friends and game show hosts.
And YES, contrary to what the Homeless Poverty Pimps say about it — well, let’s just think about that for a moment:
After all, the HPP segment gets paid — hello, PAID, for what they do; therefore, more homelessness = job insurance.
To continue, contrary to HPP positions many “homeless” people do in fact prefer to be and do what they do. In addition, many of them cross paths and segments and are flat-out CRIMINALS as well as being unemployable, stupid, mentally deranged, tattooed with “FUCK YOU” on their foreheads, societal rejectals, alcoholics, drug-addicted and on and on and on and on.
Not a very nice, accepting and tolerant position, is it?
I went to a Bible College in downtown Chicago for 4 years and it was interesting trying to figure out what the Christian response was to the homeless people. Everyone had a different take but you knew not to just give them money because they would spend it on drugs/alcohol. The strange thing to me was so many of them didn’t want to go to the shelters. Why would you want to live on the street? And you are right about so many of them needing mental screenings.
That’s the conundrum that the HPP Brigade doesn’t want to address: WHY do so many of them wish to continue living on the streets? To what end? To you and I that is a dead-end life, literally and figuratively. But when the HPP tell you none of them make the actual choice to do so, well, they’re fulla their own fecal material.
I wonder how it is “progressive” to let the homeless run amok? And how do they get an accurate count of who is homelesss?
Its sad that there aren’t better laws for the mentally ill. We all know there are people that just plain NEED to be on meds. But to do that we would have to “trample” their personal freedoms. And we just can’t do that now can we? (wink) They can’t be forced to take their medication. And did you know that going on and of psychotropic drugs can make them “crazier?” So its a crappy , vicious circle.
There will always be homeless people, and crazy people. There will always be poor. Because people choose their own paths. People have free will, and that darn free will can take you anywhere or nowhere. Its a fascinating subject to me. Being Bi-polar as I am, it boggles my mind how others with my same condition can be brilliant and successul or out on the street!
This was a most excellent post btw! I really enjoyed it!
Echotig: in my estimation, your comment essentially summed up all I was attempting to say.
And succinctly, too.
I’m not bipolar per se (once called manic/depressive), though as I age I find my response at days end to what I encountered the prior 12 hours to be on the far ends of the scale — either rather satisfying or remarkably negative.
Free Will?
Hell, that could be any number of Masters Theses and Doctorates and beyond for years to come.
Makes me think of the Rush song of the same name. . .
Echotig: BTW, I checked out your profile and this is bad: we’re both Scorpios.
Fantastic! Texas has 3 in Top 20. Way to keep those streets clean.
I can’t encourage enabling destructive behavior. I want folks to get better not worse.
Bi-Polar is the new Manic Depression. Same great taste, cuter new name!
I guess it matters who exactly “called” you manic depressive? If it was a Doctor I guess it means something. If it was an ex girlfriend, well, not so much.
I could handle the mania. I get real creative when I am Manic. I get a lot done! But the depression was kicking my butt. It wasn’t just the feeling “blue” kind of depression. It was the hopeless, angry, pessimistic, making everyone around me tired of my negativism kind.
Having BiPolar doesn’t make me more sympathetic to those that have it and don’t take care of themselves and end up homeless. I think its completely irresponsible and stupid not to help yourself. I guess they don’t want to deal with reality. So they “self medicate” with drugs/alcohol. I guess I am not a very nice, tolerant, accepting kind of girl. Oh well…I’ve been told thats a Scorpio thing. HA!
Nothing wrong with being a Scorpio..
Nov 10… Me and the Corps…
The Alliance of Scorpio Blogs? I know five already!
I wonder to what extent those homeless are mentally ill veterans. So much for all the hoorah about supporting our troops if they come home with debilitating conditions and become the pariahs of society after “defending” our freedoms.
Jesus said that even a tax collector can be kind to people he likes and there is nothing wonderful about that. It is the truly righteous man who shows kindness to those he may not like. People in the meanest cities are simply showing their true immoral, hateful colors.
I’m really surprised that San Francisco made the list. I mean really surprised! I thought those moonbats out there loved everybody! Just goes to show what hippocrites they are.
Echotig is exactly right: There are people who take care of themselves and people who don’t. We all have choices to make and it looks like Echotig is doing a good job of making the right ones!
Being a Texan I’m very happy we made the list three times. Wish it had been more! 🙂
II: if they are veterans, shame on us — except, as was pointed out, people have to take steps to do something about themselves. In my community our VA hospital is pretty darned good, though the base around it has been deactivated.
Well…I’m not currently homeless…but you never know. Just kidding. I’m as adorable as a stray kitten and less stinky…I’m sure someone would take me in. At least I have a list of where NOT to go.
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01 16 06
Blo Zep: This is an EXCELLENT post. You know, I can’t stand the ineffective and bs posturing that those poverty pimps do in SF. They really affect policy at a broad level and stop a lot of good programs that can help with this homeless issue. They were even against the Treasure Island Project, which homeless families report as being VERY EFFECTIVE. I think those assholes are only concerned about their own egos. Even homeless rights advocates are usally at odds with theBoard of Sups and Mr. Newsome because their policies don’t make sense. Oh well…Thanks for bringing this really difficult issue to light. Good job!!! You have really been on a roll lately:)
01 16 06
Blo Zep:
That is The Treasure Island Homeless Initiative Project;)
Mahndisa: Treasure Island would be a great place for that, and I had totally forgotten about it, thank you!
For those unfamiliar with the San Francisco bay area, Treasure Island is a man-made island linked to Yerba Buena Island, in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The SF Bay Bridge, which connects Oakland to San Francisco, runs over Yerba Buena Island.
Treasure Island used to be a navy base and was deactivated in 1994 or so. There’s a lot of room on Treasure Island, and the idea was to move the “homeless” of the bay area there.
Mahndisa: I went to that website and there is information indicating they WANT to build housing on the site, but I didn’t see anything indicating they have actually done so.
If it in fact has not yet been built on the site, I would suspect the greatest objection is the “isolation” of the homeless from the rest of society — that they’re not “good enough” to mingle with the rest.
I’m trying to think like a good Liberal Left Winger, you see.
Thanks for the comments!
This is the best definition I ever saw of what a Poverty Pimp is.